Background: This article explains the bystander effect and why it might occur. It claims that the diffusion of responsibility causes the bystander effect. When people are in a group, each person feels less pressure to act. It also explains what was discovered in the smoke experiment. People in a group look at others for the proper response. If others don’t react, then people assume the proper response is not to do anything.

How I used it: I used it to learn about the bystander effect and why it might happen.

Background: This article explores how people get their news. The majority of people only read the headlines of news articles. This means that headlines are very influential to the public’s opinion because it is the only information many are getting.

How I used it: This supports the idea that the misleading headline of the Genovese article heavily influenced many people’s perception of the murder. Most of the original readers probably only looked the headline.

Background: This study shows how emotion can affect our memory and how we think. Negative emotions caused participants to perform worse on cognitive tests.

How I used it: I used this to argue that negative emotions affected the ability of readers to form reasonable conclusions about the Genovese murder. The headline of the article would induce negative emotions from the reader and impair their mental function.

6. Konnikova, Maria. “How Headlines Change the Way We Think.” The New Yorker. The New Yorker, 17 Dec. 2014. Web. 25 Apr. 2017.

Background: This article gives more information about misleading headlines. Readers remember claims in headlines even if they are not proven in the article.

How I used it: This is more support for how the famous headline mislead people.

Background: This study explores how people react differently based on who the victim is and who their fellow bystanders are. The study found that bystanders are more likely to take action if the victim is part of their in group. It also found that bystanders are more likely to take action if the other bystanders are part of their in group. This study helps explain why groups don’t help a victim. They can see a victim as part of another group and feel less responsibility for them. When the other bystanders are part of the out group, each person is not sure what is expected of them and often don’t do anything.

How I used it: This study helped me to understand why people don’t help someone in need. It shows how people treat someone in their group vs someone outside their group. I use it to help explain the inaction of witnesses in some cases.

Background: This is a news article about a rape with bystanders. A 15 year old girl was gang raped by up to 10 people outside a high school dance. 10 other people watched without intervening or calling the police. She was found unconscious, in critical condition, by a cop. The cop was called by a person who had heard kids talking about the rape.

Background: This is the Asch’s conformity experiments. They showed that even when a person is certain they have the right answer, the person will often conform to the group’s wrong answer. This is important in understanding group dynamics.

How I used it: I used this to explain why the bystander effect happens. Even when a person wants to help they look at others not helping and decide not to help also. It shows how powerful group dynamics are.

15. York Times, 26 Mar. 1964. Web. 06 Mar. 2017.

Background: This is the infamous Kitty Genovese article.

How I used it: I use the headline to show that is is misleading and would invoke negative emotion. I also use it to show how it misleads people and contains wrong information.